


Come Back Home

by WritingIsMyAddiction



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Drinking, F/F, F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, Kidnapping, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-04-26
Packaged: 2018-09-27 11:28:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10018208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WritingIsMyAddiction/pseuds/WritingIsMyAddiction
Summary: Alternate ending to 2x14. In the forest, during her showdown with Jeremiah she's kidnapped by Cadmus. Jeremiah wants a chance to reunite with his daughter. Kara will do anything to save her sister, all of them would do anything to get Alex back. But, even if they do, will it really be their Alex?





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> This one gets a little dark folks. I'll include any sort of trigger warnings as they might apply. It's angsty, but if you bare with me I think it'll be really good.

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Supergirl or any of the characters. I'm just borrowing them.**

Chapter One

 

Alex didn’t even hear the real Hank Henshaw coming up behind her, only felt the sharp prick of a needle and then nothing. She had been so overwhelmed with what she had just learned about her father and she had forgotten her DEO training. Jeremiah watched as Alex crumbled to the ground with a sickening thud. Then watched the enhanced Hank step over her as if she were nothing but discarded trash.  
  
“There you go Danvers, got your family reunion.” Hank said as he passed by, leaving Jeremiah to carry Alex the rest of the way. He knew when she woke up that she wouldn’t understand why he did what he had done, and no words that he could say would make her understand. So he needed to show her why he was doing it. He didn’t lie, he was doing this all to make up for the mistakes he had made in the past. The horrible disservice he had done to his daughter.  
  
*~*  
  
“Alex!” Kara called into the dark woods when she had landed. She didn’t know what to expect when found her sister but her mind had been swimming with possibilities. Kara knew that she very well could be flying down and seeing her sister’s body. Or Jeremiah’s. But scanning the forest in every direction Kara couldn’t find a single trace of anyone.  
  
“Supergirl report.” J’onn’s voice in her ear brought Kara out of her panic. Though only enough that she was able to realize what had happened. They had taken Alex. Cadmus had Alex.  
  
“Alex is gone, they have Alex.” Kara said panic raising in her body so much that she felt like she might jump out of her skin.  
  
“Come back to the DEO, we’ll have an entire team sweep the area.” J’onn instructed. He looked around at the agents working to put the DEO back online. How could Jeremiah have done this? Had he really misread his friend so much? He should have known when he couldn’t read Jeremiah’s mind that something was off. But he’d been so happy, to eager to think that they had finally caught a break.  
  
But now, they needed to find Alex. The DEO could burn to the ground and he wouldn’t care because he needed to make sure that Alex was alright. The agent was as close to a daughter to him as he had allowed himself to have after losing his family on Mars and he was not going to let Cadmus take her from him. Barking orders at any and all agents that he could to get their work stations on line faster so that they could begin the search.  
  
Within a few hours Winn had things up and running as much as they could be. At least to the the point where they could figure out what Jeremiah had stolen.  
  
“I don’t care what they took, we have to get Alex back!” Kara said arms crossed, it was a lie, she did care. There was a part of her who did care about the bigger picture and the innocent lives that were now in danger. But she cared more about knowing that her sister was alright.  
  
“We’re going to get her back.” Mon-El promised. Kara had always hated promises like that because they didn’t know that for sure. They were words that were meant to make people feel better.  
  
“I need to call Eliza, and Maggie. They should both be here.” Kara said pulling her phone out.  
Eliza and Maggie arrived pretty much at the same time, both of them confused at Kara’s barely coherent message that instructed them to come to the DEO because it was important. Maggie feared the worst, she was still coming to terms with the knowledge that her girlfriends work was dangerous and there was a high risk that Alex might get hurt at work, or worse. It wasn’t a thought that she liked to linger on but it was just the nature of Alex’s job. And the two of them had a deal that they wouldn’t allow “what if’s” to cast a shadow over their relationship. They would just live every moment together to the fullest. And already she was thinking that there were so many things that she still wanted to say to Alex.  
  
“Where’s Alex?” Maggie demanded the moment that she was within earshot of the command center. Kara whipped around and the look on her face was enough for both Eliza and Maggie to skid to a halt. The heartbreak and pain that Kara was able to show just in her eyes made Eliza grab onto Maggie for support.  
  
“Is she okay? Where’s my baby?” Eliza asked her voice wavering. Maggie wrapped her arm around Eliza to keep the older woman upright while Kara made her way to them.  
  
“They took Alex, Cadmus and Jeremiah took Alex. And I wasn’t there to stop them. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to stop them. But they attacked a train and Alex told me to go and save all those people.” Kara rambled throwing her arms around Eliza’s neck needing the comfort only a mother could truly give.  
  
“What do you mean Jeremiah? What does he have to do with this?” Maggie asked.  
  
“He was a plant, Cadmus planned this all along. They must have broken him. Did something to him that made him change loyalties because he sabotaged this place. He hacked the mainframe and stole the list of every alien in the database.” J’onn explained.  
  
“I should call the bar, they should know to close down and lay low for a bit.” Maggie said pulling her phone out. With a quick text she was able to let Darla know. Since it was still a new thing of being accepted by the general population, they still used to codewords Maggie had insisted they set up. There were words that could be texted quickly if something had happened. Red meant to shut the bar down immediately and tell everyone to be safe.  
  
“We’re scanning for any and all Cadmus activity but so far our scans are coming back empty. I tried to zero in on the geo trace from Alex’s vest but they must have deactivated it. I don’t know where to look.” Winn said slamming his hands down on his keyboard. He didn’t know where to look, he could find anyone if they left even the faintest trace but in this case they hadn’t and he had no idea where to begin to look. Cadmus didn’t want to be found, and given that they had kept Jeremiah for 15 years, they knew how to hide someone without anyone knowing where.  
  
*~*  
  
Alex woke up slowly, the kind of slowness that came when subconsciously you know that waking up is going to be painful. Whatever drug they had used on her was potent enough to make her lose consciousness in less than 30 seconds which meant that she was probably going to have a massive headache when she actually opened her eyes. Still, Alex took the opportunity to take stock of her faculties, what could she feel? Everything, so they hadn’t used a paralyzing agent. Could she move? No.  
When she finally did open her eyes, the stampede in her head began and Alex was sure she would be sick. Having suffered enough hangovers in her life Alex knew what she needed to do in order keep herself from actually getting sick.  
  
“Hey.” Hearing the voice that she had craved to hear for 15 years, Alex turned her head and saw Jeremiah standing at the far end of the room. It looked like he had been sitting there for a while, watching her sleep.  
  
“How could you?” Alex’s voice was hoarse but it still carried with it the betrayal that she felt.  
  
“I’m sorry that it had to be this way Alex.” Alex strained to move her arms, wincing when she felt the pressure of restraints keeping her arms pinned.  
  
“Sorry? You are working for Cadmus!”  
  
“It was what I had to do to keep you safe.” Jeremiah saw the disgust in his daughters eyes. And he knew that in a lot of ways he deserved it.  
  
“Keep me safe? Because I feel so safe right now.”  
  
“Ah you’re awake.” Alex heard the icy voice of Lillian Luthor from somewhere behind her head. She didn’t bother trying to look knowing that she wouldn’t be able to see the older woman, nor did she really want to.  
  
“What do you want?” Alex demanded. Her brief encounter with the woman before, when Lillian had warned that Alex wouldn’t like what her father had become was now coming to the forefront of Alex’s mind.  
  
“We want you to join us. One of the things that we had your father take for us was your personel file. Which I just finished reading. Impressive I must say. Bio-engineer, PhD, you even finished medical school.” Alex hated that Lillian knew so much about her.  
  
“You’ll have to kill me.”  
  
“You know, Jeremiah said that before and look where we are now.”  
  
“I’m stronger than he is.” Alex promised. She would never betray her family, or her friends. No matter what Cadmus did to her.  
  
“I’m sure you are. But everyone breaks eventually.”  
  
Wincing as the sudden brightness that came from a light Lillian turned on, but it wasn’t a light. As soon as Alex was able to focus she saw that it was a computer monitor being suspended over the bed. It was loading a program.  
  
“We’ve been perfecting a technique for persuading the mind. One of the many useful things we’ve been able to extract from our invaders. You see this here, once it’s introduced into your blood stream will allow you to be more open to suggestion. When we’re done with you Agent Danvers, you’ll be just as big an asset to Cadmus as your father.” Alex looked over and saw the syringe that Lillian was holding. Alex hadn’t noticed the IV that they’d hooked her up to, but as Lillian introduced the chemical to what she assumed was a saline drip Alex fought. Fighting against the restraints. Fighting with everything she had even though she knew that it was pointless. She wouldn’t be able to break the restraints.  
  
“Dad, don’t let them do this to me.” Alex begged. Looking at her dad hoping that she might see some of the old Jeremiah in there. But instead she was horrified to find that he looked hopeful. Hopeful that this would work.  
  
When she felt the first warmth of the chemical as it made its way into her bloodstream Alex thought she knew was nauseous felt like. But this was a whole new feeling. Her head spun and all of her senses seemed to mix together, she swore she could see sounds. And then the program started to play.  
  
“Welcome to Cadmus…”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Character's don't belong to me.

 

Chapter Two  
  
Alex came too slowly, for the first time not feeling her head swim with all the chemicals they had been pumping her full of. But with that clarity came the horrendous stampede that came through her head. She didn’t know how long they had kept her there, it felt like an eternity. They had moved her from where she had been kept when they were trying to use cognitive reprogramming on her. Now she was sitting in a hard steel chair with her arms tied behind her.  
  
“We tried it your father’s way, and frankly I am surprised that you made it as long as you did under what normally would have broken most others. But, I was getting a little impatient.” Lillian’s taunting voice came first from behind Alex but then the older woman circled around her to stand in front of her.   
  
“Didn’t picture you as the impatient type.”  
  
“You flatter me Agent Danvers. But you’re right. Normally, I am very patient. I know when to play the long game, good things come to those who wait and all of that. Your father is convinced that you can be persuaded to join us. I have my doubts.” Lillian’s eyes were emotionless, and Alex knew in that moment that this experience was going to hurt. Whatever it was that Lillian had planned for her was probably going to be one of the most painful things she’d ever experienced.   
  
“So you’re going to torture me then? I think I’d rather have the physical pain than have you talk me to death.” Alex spat. When she had joined the DEO, part of her training had encompassed torture methods. Of course, there was no way that the DEO could actually mimic what true torture was like.   
  
“Ever since Superman put my son behind bars, I’ve wanted to destroy him. Supergirl has been a thorn in my side since she decided she wanted to play superhero like her cousin. But annoyingly Kryptonian’s are incredibly difficult to kill without kryptonite. Sure, we could manufacture some or steal some. Lex left plenty of resources for me before he was put in prison. And then I thought to myself, what could I do to really hurt Supergirl? Which brings us to you. You are her weakness Agent Danvers. Killing you would hurt her, but it would really just spur her on. But if I break you, turn you against her that would be the truest torture I could think of.”   
  
“Do your worst.” Alex challenged.   
  
*~*  
  
“How is it that Alex has been missing for a week and I’m just hearing about this now?!” Lucy’s voice called out into the DEO breaking everyone’s attention on the task they had at hand. They were running out of leads but no one was willing to admit it. Maggie and Kara spent most of their time on the streets, running down every lead that they could. But that was like looking for a needle in a haystack.   
  
“Major Lane, we didn’t call you until we had something to report.” J’onn said straightening his stance. After being given back control over the DEO, he relieved Lucy of her position as Director and she was given a post in Washington as liaison between the Pentagon and the DEO.   
  
“Agent Danvers has been taken by Cadmus and none of you thought that I should be told? What do we know? Do we have any leads?”  
  
“We know that Jeremiah Danvers has switched loyalties. And he helped Lillian Luthor abduct Alex.” J’onn said.   
  
“Where is Kara?”  
  
“Out looking for Alex. I think short of breaking down every door looking for her, she’s coming apart at the seems.” Winn said. He had seen Kara upset, he had seen her heart broken. But he had never seen that. It looked like at any moment she was going to shatter and none of them knew how to make it better. They needed Alex to walk back in the doors of the DEO. None of them wanted to voice the very real possibility that Alex might not even be in National City any more. But it was always in the back of their minds that Cadmus had kept Jeremiah for fifteen years, if they didn’t want to be found they wouldn’t be.   
  
“Have we asked Lena Luthor?”  
  
*~*  
  
“Kara? Are you alright?” Lena was surprised to find Kara knocking on her door at near the middle of the night. She had still been awake but she was flirting with the idea of going to sleep as soon as she went over the notes from the last board meeting. But the appearance of a certain blonde reporter that looked like she was about ready to fall apart at the seams banished any hint of tiredness that she might have felt.  
  
“I’m sorry for stopping by so late. Cadmus took Alex.” Kara said around the tears that had begun to fall as soon as Lena opened the door. Despite what everyone had said about not trusting Lena, Kara trusted her instincts about people and she knew that Lena was someone that she could trust.   
  
“Oh my God, come in please.” Lena ushered Kara inside and immediately wrapped her arms around Kara hugging tight. From the little time that they had spent together Lena knew that Alex meant the world to Kara.  
  
“I just, everyone is looking and doing their best but we can’t find a single trace of where they might have taken her. I don’t know if she’s even alive right now. And I feel so helpless.”  
  
“I’ll make a few calls, see if my mother might be using any of L corps resources. Any of the warehouses or holdings that have long since been abandoned after Lex was arrested.”  
  
“Thank you.” Kara mumbled as she watched Lena go and retrieve her phone. While Lena made a few quick phone calls Kara sat motionless on Lena’s couch. She was exhausted but she couldn’t sleep, every time she closed her eyes she imagined what they might be doing to Alex. And if by some miracle she did get a chance to sleep she was hit with nightmares of Alex asking her why she was sleeping when Alex was being hurt. It was just easy for her not to sleep.   
  
“Okay, I have my assistant looking into some of the tax documents from last year to see where L corp has been paying for property. Maybe there is something there.” Lena commented sitting down beside Kara.   
  
“Alex has always been the one to come and look for me, come and rescue me when I needed it. I don’t know what to do without her.”  
  
“They’re going to find her.”  
  
“I have to.”   
  
“How can I help?”  
  
“Can I stay here tonight? I’ll sleep on the couch. I just, need to not be at my place right now and think about the fact that Alex is out there somewhere having God knows what done to her.” Kara looked up at Lena, eyes wide and hopeful. Really Lena was completely lost just in that one look, there was no way she could say no.   
  
“You don’t have to stay on the couch, I have a guest room.”   
  
“You don’t mind?”  
  
“Not at all. Give me a minute to get it all made up for you.”   
  
*~*  
  
Maggie was sure that this was absolutely counter productive to finding her girlfriend. She knew that looking for Alex did not include finishing a bottle of scotch and sitting on the floor in Alex’s apartment wallowing in self pity and bubbling rage. And yet here she was. She felt defeated. She was a detective and she should be able to find out where they had taken Alex but every time there was a glimmer of hope and she let herself believe that this was the time that they were going to find Alex, she was let down. And every time that happened she felt herself break just a little bit more.   
  
She should have known that nothing good lasts for her. Alex was too good, what they had was too perfect and Maggie had begun to let herself believe that this might be something that she could have. And then this happened. Alex was gone and Maggie couldn’t save her, Maggie didn’t know how to find Alex. So she was going to drink herself into a small coma until she could fall asleep and not dream about Alex. Until she could breathe again with it hurting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forewarning, next chapter will have some glimpses of torture. I'll have another warning at the beginning of the chapter just to remind people. I don't know how graphic it'll get but still, wanted to put the warning out there.
> 
> As always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts.


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So I aired a little on the side of caution, as I mentioned in my note before there is torture in this chapter but it's not graphic. And it is more psychological torture than anything. Still, please read at your own discretion. If you decide not to read this chapter, I'm already planning next chapter to be able to be read without having read this one.

Chapter Three  
  
Alex wished that they would actually hit her.   
  
Such a desire seemed completely contrary to her training, and all reasonable thought. But she found herself wishing it. Because if they did, then at least she would actually see them. She never did. After they had given up on trying cognitive reprogramming, they went back to archaic yet proven methods of making Alex slowly lose her mind.   
  
She hadn’t seen anyone in what felt like an eternity, no sound other than her own breathing, nothing to look at except for a plain gray stone wall. Time was endless. There was nothing she could do but think. At first she tried to sleep, but that’s how she learned that they were watching her. Every time her eyes closed a sound akin to a fog horn echoed into the room. She slept when they allowed her to sleep. And never for very long. Food was given in the form a small brick like thing that reminded her in some way of a Power Bar.   
  
Silence was deafening, Alex had never known that silence could be so loud. She tried to focus on anything. At one point resorting to reciting the periodic table. But she couldn’t even do that anymore. Thoughts scattered, her focus obliterated. She just wanted to be let out of this room. The DEO had been thorough in their training, the possibility that there might be an incident where she would be tortured was something that was thought about and prepared for. They put her through the harshest training imaginable, the kind that would make the Navy SEALS training look like a picnic. But they had never prepared her for this.   
  
*~*  
  
“It looks like she’s about ready to break.” Lillian said looking down at the computer monitor. Frankly, she was impressed with how long Alex had lasted. But she was learning that she needs to stop expecting Alex Danvers to be like everyone else. The young woman was proving to be as extraordinary as Jeremiah said she was. Which was what made Lillian so determined to break her and make her join Cadmus. To have a soldier like Alex would definitely turn the odds in their favor. And she was pretty sure that they could do it.   
  
“Have you thought about what kind of person she’s going to be when she comes out of that room? If you break her entirely, what use will she be to us?” Lillian never pictured cyborg Hank Henshaw to actually be capable of deeper thought and she certainly didn’t appreciate him questioning her.   
  
“You let me worry about building her back up. You still need to finish breaking her down first. And keep Jeremiah Danvers from finding his daughter in there.”  
  
“I thought you trusted him?”  
  
“I trust that he’ll do anything to keep his daughter alive. But that compliance will only go so far.” Lillian answered.   
  
*~*  
  
It becomes impossible to think a single, coherent thought after a while. She tried. She tried and she tried to go over even the most basic of things. After a while she couldn’t even recite the periodic table, a talent she had had since she was ten years old. Alex remembered when she had first realized she had memorized the whole thing and she recited it to her parents. The look of pride of their faces had been such that Alex felt invincible. But now she couldn’t even get past Carbon without losing her train of thought.  
  
So, she tried to distract her mind in other ways. Push ups, crunches, squats, anything that she could do just to keep some part of her sharp. Her mind was deteriorating, that much was obvious. But that didn’t meant that she had to let herself physically deteriorate. Though they didn’t feed her enough or allow her to sleep enough for it to do much good. Instead she worked herself to the point of pure exhaustion so that when they did allow her to sleep she was able to fall asleep relatively quickly.   
  
The funny thing was, it was only when Alex had begun to make her peace with the fact that she would never see the outside of her cell again when the door opened. The sound of the door unlocking was so startling that Alex moved to the far corner of the room and cowered. She cowered like a scared animal while she waited to see if they had finally come to kill her.   
  
“Agent Danvers.” Lillian greeted her looking put together and regal as usual. Her arms crossed in front of her chest and she looked down at Alex with a steely glare. Ignoring entirely the disheveled ghost of a woman that now sat before her.  
  
“How long?”  
  
“Have you been inside that cell? One month.” Lillian announced like it was some kind of accomplishment. Alex stood up, her legs shaking violently, threatening to give out on her.   
  
“Why?”  
  
“How about we take you somewhere you can clean up, a shower maybe? We’ll talk afterwards.” Lillian turned before Alex could say anything else and before she could even think up a reply guards were walking into the cell and grabbing her by the elbows pulling her from the cell.   
  
The shower was nothing fancy, it was barely even a shower but the water was hot and Alex had never felt anything better. She moved quickly, washing her hair and her body in record time because she didn’t know how long she would actually have the water for. There was no time to luxuriate under the hot spray. There were a pair of clothes folded and waiting for her. They looked to be her size but when she put them on she was practically swimming in them.   
  
When they led her back to Lillian, the older woman was sitting behind a desk. There was nothing remarkable about the facility they were keeping her in. But really, contrary to the years she had trained as a DEO agent, Alex wasn’t really paying attention to the details.   
  
“Well well, you almost look human again.” Lillian said by way of greeting. Alex didn’t say anything. “I have a question I’m going to ask you. If you answer correctly, you get to stay out of that room. If you answer incorrectly, you go back into the room. Understand?”  
  
Alex nodded.   
  
“Who is Kara Danvers?”   
  
“You know who she is.” Alex deflected. She knew what Lillian meant, and she knew which answer was correct and which one would get her thrown back into her cell. She could not express enough how much she did not want to go back into that room.   
  
“Who is she, to you?” Alex shook her head, her answer burning like sulfur on her tongue. She knew what she should say, every self preserving instinct in her body screamed at her to say the words.   
  
“She’s my sister.”   
  
Lillian exhaled disappointedly, shaking her head as if she were actually sad that she had to put Alex back into the room. Still, with a wave of her hand she sent Alex kicking and screaming back into her cell.   
  
*~*  
  
To say that life had gotten back to normal was one of the worst injustices to the word that any of them could think of. But it was their new normal. While no one gave up hope that they would find Alex. They had long ago run out of leads. And there were still people in National City that they could save. Every effort was still being made to find Alex, and every lead that they had about Cadmus and it’s whereabouts were followed up on with the full might of the DEO and the US Government.   
  
Kara was a shell of who she was, her smile only a shadow of what it had been. While no one had ever questioned it before it became clear that Alex really was the source of strength behind Supergirl. Without her, in a lot of ways Kara gave up. There were days when she just didn’t want to put on the suit and cape anymore, but she remembered that Alex would want her too.  
  
Maggie had been chained to a desk for most of the time since Alex had been taken. Her Captain realizing that putting Maggie in the field was only going to put her more at risk. She was one of his best officers, and after it had been explained to him what had happened he was not unsympathetic. Really, he was giving her more leeway than he would give most.   
  
She was three drinks in when there was a knock on Alex’s door. She’d practically moved into Alex’s apartment. It was the only place she was able to get any sleep. Though she told herself and anyone who asked it was so that she could keep paying the rent so that when they found Alex, she would still have an apartment to come home too. Maggie made her way to the door, gun in one hand. Kara would walk right in, and no one else would come without calling.   
  
“Maggie, honey it’s Eliza.” Maggie pulled the door open so fast that it shook on the hinges.  
  
“Mrs. Danvers, what’re you doing here?” Maggie asked putting the gun down in the table nearest the door. Eliza walked into the dark apartment, looking around and seeing what she expected, that Maggie wasn’t taking care of herself at all.   
  
“J’onn called me, he told me that he was worried about you.”  
  
“Me? I’m fine.” Maggie knew she wasn’t even remotely convincing.  
  
“If you are anything like i was then Jeremiah went missing before, you are not fine.”  
  
“I don’t want to add to what you’re going through. She’s your daughter.” Maggie said already feeling herself begin to crumble.   
  
“And she would never forgive me if she knew that you were hurting and we didn’t help each other.” Eliza said sitting at one of the stools in Alex’s kitchen. Maggie lingered by the door for several minutes before joining Eliza. Out of all of the people that had told Maggie that they understood what she was going through, though they might think they could imagine, they had no idea. Eliza actually did know what it was like.  
  
“It hurts to breathe. Most days when i wake up and remember that she’s gone I want to close my eyes again and fall back asleep because in my dreams she’s still there. But the days that I can’t stay in bed and I have to get up…” Maggie’s voice broke, hot tears falling down her cheeks as she gave words to the turmoil that had been playing in her head and her heart since Alex had been taken.  
  
“When they told me Jeremiah had died, I didn’t get out of bed for two weeks. I didn’t want it to be real. It couldn’t be real. Alex, she stepped up and she took care of us. She made sure I ate something, she took care of Kara who had no idea what was going on. Alex was there to hold me together when I was sure I would come apart at the seams. Let me do the same for you.” Eliza requested. Eliza had not been a good mother to Alex, and this had all happened before she and Alex had had their chance to fix their relationship.  
  
“I’m not giving up on finding her.”  
  
“I know you aren’t. None of you are. And that is exactly why I know that my daughter is going to come home.   
  
*~*  
  
She never knew how long it would be. Sometimes they would keep her in the room for a few days and then they would let her out, feed her, allow her to shower, and then Lillian would ask her the same question. When she didn’t respond with the correct answer she was put back in the room. And it might be weeks before they let her out again. It was never the same duration of time. And it was maddening. The more time she spent staring at the same walls, trying desperately to keep hold of her sanity the more it pained her to feel it slipping away. They wanted her broken, they want her to admit that Kara wasn’t her sister. That Kara was the enemy. And they wanted her desperate enough for her freedom that she was willing to admit to it. And Alex thought about lying. She couldn’t pretend that she didn’t. Lie and try and find an escape later. But she couldn’t let them win. She couldn’t let them think that they had broken her.   
  
But they were. Every time they asked the words hesitated on her lips just a little longer. If she just told them what they wanted to hear then she wouldn’t have to go back in that room.   
  
“Who is Kara Danvers?” Lillian asked for what felt like the hundredth time. Despite the repetitiveness of it Lillian still looked expectant. She looked like she was sure that Alex would give her the answer that she wanted. And she was willing to wait for it.   
  
“She’s an alien who took my family from me.”  
  
For a moment the room was silent. Lillian looking surprised, she had never thought they would get to this moment. She was sure that Alex would die in the isolation room. Instead, the woman that stood in front of her looked broken. Finally giving into her instinct to survive.   
  
“See, now we’re making progress.”


	4. Chapther Four

Chapter 4  
  
Alex hated that Hank Henshaw seemed to be in charge of keeping her compliant. She hated looking at his face and seeing J’onn. Expecting the man that she knew and instead receiving the harshness of fists or kicks when she stepped out of line. Lillian was smart enough not to trust that she was going to follow orders like a perfect soldier simply because she was let out of the room. But the threat of being taken back and never let out again was enough to keep Alex obedient for the most part.   
  
They began training her again, physically. The time that she had spent in her cell had started to have a negative effect on her. But this wasn’t like any sparring she had ever done during her training at the DEO. These were fellow agents that she was practicing against. There were no training dummies that she could unleash all the rage she had in her on. She trained against aliens. Aliens that had been rounded up by Cadmus, some of them had never fought before. But if she didn’t, if she didn’t do what they wanted her to do then they were going to put her back into the cell and she couldn’t handle that. So she fought them. She had too.  
  
She kept telling herself that the stronger she got the better her chances were to escaping. If she could just keep her strength up then she could jump on any opportunity to escape. She needed to believe that in order to stomach what it was that she was doing. But for the time being they were feeding her regularly, and allowing her to sleep. It was only a small cot that they gave her that she couldn’t even lie and say was comfortable. But she could sleep.   
  
“She’s progressing nicely.” Lillian said looking down at the makeshift training ground that they had created for Alex.   
  
“She’s lethal that’s for sure. But out in the field? She’ll run first chance she gets.” Hank said.  
  
“I don’t plan on ever allowing her out in the field.”  
  
“What are you planning for her then?”  
  
“You’ll see.” Lillian said mysteriously before she turned and left. When she returned to her office, she found Jeremiah Danvers standing in her office. Thinking that she could keep it from him forever wasn’t likely, especially with him knowing that Alex was somewhere in site. She had been expecting this conversation for some time.   
  
“This was not what we discussed when we talked about recruiting my daughter.” Jeremiah started as soon as he saw Lillian.  
  
“We tried it your way and that obviously wasn’t working. I was growing impatient.” Lillian answered coldly.   
  
“So you torture my daughter?”  
  
“She is physically fine. Would you like us to revisit the techniques we used in order to get you to come around to our way of thinking?” Lillian asked glancing at Jeremiah’s arm.   
  
“This wasn’t what I wanted for her.”  
  
“You wanted a family reunion Jeremiah, there is a Chinese proverb for you. Be careful what you wish for.” Jeremiah knew that he was dismissed, the father in him wanted to stay behind and argue. To fight. But he knew better. Yelling wasn’t the way to get through to Lillian. So he left. It was nearing morning and they would probably be allowing Alex to go and get some rest after her long nights worth of “training”. If he hurried he might be able to get a glimpse of her. But it worried him what he might see. The last time he had seen her, when Alex had looked at him there was no humanity in Alex’s eyes. It was as if she wasn’t even there anymore. He had taken the very best thing in his world, the greatest part of him, and he had allowed it to be destroyed. He had helped destroy it.   
  
*~*  
  
It had been four months, three weeks, and five days since Alex had been gone. At the beginning of the night Maggie had known how many hours too. But that was a quarter bottle of whiskey ago. She was at the alien bar, but only because she couldn’t bare to sit in Alex’s apartment anymore. Reminders that her girlfriend was somewhere out there and Maggie couldn’t find her were everywhere in Alex’s apartment. Maggie could have gone back to her own apartment, but she had let her lease go and had been staying at Alex’s. It was something that she had planned to talk to Alex about before everything had happened. The cliche way of bringing up the idea of moving in together when her lease was up. But she had never gotten the chance.  
  
“I’m not going to ask you if you’re okay. But, I am going to ask if you plan on drinking any water tonight.” M’gann asked leaning against the bar looking at her friend with sad eyes. She saw it with J’onn too, the Martian looked like someone had ripped his heart out. He’d lost another daughter and it was eating him up inside, he had promised himself that he would never allow that to happen again and he had failed to protect another daughter.   
  
“Drinking water would help me sober up wouldn’t it?” Maggie asked looking up defiantly. As defiant as she could with the glaze of drunkenness in her eye.  
  
“It’ll make tomorrow morning less painful.”  
  
“Will it bring her back?” Maggie asked utterly broken.  
  
“Maggie…”  
  
“I know. Sitting here and drinking won’t bring her back but it might, for a few hours take away the pain of being helpless.”   
  
“You’re going to find her Maggie.” Staring down into the amber liquid of her glass Maggie wanted to believe that. In the early days, she believed it because she thought that if she believed it passionately enough then it might make it true. And that had worked for a while, when she hadn’t been beaten down by disappointment after disappointment. Leads that at the time seemed so promising and yet when it came down to it, they really were no closer to finding Alex.  
  
“I want to believe that.”  Maggie said.  
  
“Come on Mag’s let me call someone to come and get you. You shouldn’t be here right now, you should be with family.”  
  
“She was my family!”  
  
“And she still is. You’re going to get her back. You have to believe that, and keep believing it until that happens. Otherwise, if you give up she might as well be dead.” M’gann said harshly. Maggie looked up sharply at the words of her friend. She couldn’t remember a time when she had heard M’gann talk to her in such a tone.   
  
“How am I supposed to keep hoping? When every time we get a new lead and it ends up leading to nothing more than false hopes I die a little bit more. I feel it, my heart has been shattered into more pieces than I can ever hope to put back together. Who am I suppose to call? Kara? She’s as torn up if not more than I am. She is as close to the walking personification of sunshine as I think is possible. And she can’t even smile anymore because her world is gone. I can’t go to her and expect that she’ll comfort me. I’m not that cruel.”  
  
“Maybe you can seek comfort in each other?” M’gann suggests.   
  
In truth, it had been an embarrassingly long time since Maggie had checked in with Kara. Alex would be disappointed in how little Maggie had looked after Kara. She knew that Kara still performed her duty as Supergirl. But, her heart wasn’t in it anymore. It was clear to everyone. People loved Supergirl still because she protected them from anyone who tried to capitalize on the change of character of National City’s favorite citizen.   
  
“I’ll go check in on her.”  
  
“Not now you won’t, you’re not driving anywhere.”  
  
“I’ll walk.” M’gann trusted Maggie enough to believe that if she said that she was going to walk, then she actually would. And Maggie is glad that she did walk, the walk wasn’t too long really and it gave her time to clear her head. The cool air brought a wave of clarity to Maggie so that when she arrived at Kara’s door, most of her buzz was gone.   
  
The door opened before she even could knock. Kara had been surprised to hear Maggie coming up her stairs. It was late, Kara suspected that the two of them had a similar aversion to sleep.   
  
“Maggie? Is everything okay?” Kara asked. Maggie hated that there was a glimmer of hope in Kara’s eyes. That Kara was hoping that Maggie had some promising news. And she was about to dash that hope and she would have to see the painful disappointment that would gut her.   
  
“I was just in the neighborhood and I wanted to see how you were.” Maggie said feeling rather lame in the way that her words seemed to tumble from her mouth with uncertainty.  
  
“Oh, please come in.” Kara said clearly surprised to see her sisters girlfriend. It was clear that the two of them were friendly toward each other. But they hadn’t really had the chance to explore their budding friendship.   
  
“I know it’s probably a stupid question, but, how are you?” Maggie asked looking around the young reporters apartment. The apartment wasn’t simply in disarray, but it seemed to lack warmth.  
  
“I wish I could say that I was getting better.” Kara said honestly. She had stopped trying to convince people that she was okay.   
  
“Likewise.”   
  
There was a long stretch of silence between them as Kara went to the kitchen and grabbed two bottles of beer. She knew that she didn’t get drunk, she couldn’t. But it seemed like the right thing to drink at this point.   
  
“I’m sorry I kind of dropped out, I wanted to be here for you.” Maggie said apologetically.   
  
“I know. This is hard for you too.” Maggie would never understand Kara’s unending, unwavering kind nature. At a time when most people would lash out angrily at the world for the unfair hand they had been dealt Kara always took everything with such grace.   
  
“It’s no excuse.”  
  
“Do you want to watch a movie? I like to watch old movies whenever I’m feeling down.”  
  
“Sure.” Maggie hated old movies, she was more of an action kinda girl. Give her a huge blockbuster where things blew up every five minutes and she was sold. But, tonight, an old Audrey Hepburn movie sounded perfect.   
  
Half way through the movie Maggie felt Kara slump against her shoulder, a quick glance confirmed that the Kryptonian was fast asleep. Maggie guessed that Kara probably was as exhausted as she was, and hadn’t been getting too much sleep. So instead of waking Kara, with her free arm Maggie reached for the large pile of blankets and draped it over them both. It was a strange realization that the thought of leaving never entered Maggie’s mind.   
  
Hours must have passed and Maggie didn’t realize that she had fallen asleep until a sharp knock on Kara’s door woke both women up. It was past the middle of the night, closer even to dawn really. Maggie stood first, she didn’t have her gun with her but still her police instincts took over. Though really, she didn’t know who she was protecting Kara was Supergirl.   
  
Looking through the peep hole in the door Maggie forgot how to breathe. Turning to look behind her, knowing that Kara had used her X-ray vision to see who it was. With the door, Maggie let her hands drop to her sides in tight fists.  
  
“Jeremiah.”


	5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five  
  
For a minute Maggie wasn’t sure if she should slam the door in Jeremiah’s face or punch him. Both instincts battled so intensely in her mind that all she could do was stand at the door gapping at the man like an idiot. This was the man that was responsible for Alex being taken, he was the reason that she was God knows where, having God knows hat being done to her. Hatred was too kind a word for what she felt for this man.  
  
“Jeremiah?” Kara spoke first, standing and walking towards the door when she saw that Maggie wasn’t going to say anything. Jeremiah looked between the two women, there was no secret about how they felt about him. Still, he walked into the apartment looking sheepishly at the ground.  
  
“If you don’t start talking right now, so help me God I will put you in the ground.” Maggie growled. She had never been one for violence, she knew that it came with the territory of her job but she was sure that if he pushed her, she would make good on her threat.  
  
“I know where they’re keeping Alex.”  
  
“Start talking.” Kara said crossing her arms. If anything, her glare was more intimidating because it was less common. Kara had a forgiving nature. She could find cause for redemption in even the most wicked of people. But right now, forgiveness was not in her mind.   
  
“I know where they’re keeping her. But it’s complicated.”  
  
“Where?”  
  
“I know that you’re going to want to go in with all of your Kryptonian force, but that’s what they’ve been preparing for. The place that they’re keeping Alex is lined with Kryptonite. It’s designed as a trap for you because they know that eventually you’d find her.” Jeremiah looked at his foster daughter hoping that if nothing else she would believe that.  
  
“You let us worry about that, just tell us where she is.” Maggie insisted. With or without Kara, Maggie knew that when they found out where they were keeping Alex they would reign down Hell on Cadmus. The DEO alone was enough to make Lillian Luthor wish she had never set eyes on Alex, but with the joint force of the US Army and the NCPD, it was enough to make Lillian wish she had never been born.   
  
*~*  
  
“Do we believe him?” Maggie was losing her patience. Looking around the DEO command center as they debating if Jeremiah’s intel was worth following up on. Maggie wanted to go straight to the place where Jeremiah said they were holding Alex. She didn’t want Alex to spend another night away from them. But, Kara had convinced her that they needed to call J’onn. They needed a plan because that was the only way that they were going to bring Alex home. Maggie didn’t expect that they would have to debate their plan until they were all blue in the face.  
  
“It’s the first solid lead we’ve had in months. We need to at least investigate it.” Lucy reasoned.  
  
“But it could be a trap. Jeremiah hasn’t been known for his loyalty.” J’onn said. He wanted to believe Jeremiah. They all did. But, like the last time Jeremiah had come into their lives it all seemed too good to be true. And J’onn couldn’t take that risk again. As much as he wanted Alex back, he couldn’t send an entire team into what could be, and probably was a trap.  
  
“I don’t care! Okay, I don’t care. This is the first solid lead we’ve had to where they might be keeping Alex. If Alex were here, and it was any one of you that was in her place you all know that she wouldn’t even think twice before she turned the world upside down until she found you.” Maggie said. She saw several of them look away, guilt across their face as they let the truth of Maggie’s statement wash over them.   
  
“We have to be smart about this. Whether Cadmus knows that we’re coming or not, we have to expect that they have fail safes.”   
  
“Then we hit them and we hit them hard. Full strike teams with a coordinated assault. Even if they are expecting it, they won’t be expecting how hard we’re going to come.” Maggie sighed in relief hearing that she wasn’t alone. Lucy brought with her the military might that they would need in order to be successful. Not that every member of the DEO wouldn’t suit up for a chance to help rescue Alex.   
  
“Alright, I’ll say it because no one else seems to be willing too. What if she doesn’t want to be rescued?” The silence that fell over the command center seemed deafening. Or maybe it was just the sound of the blood coursing through Maggie’s veins as she looked at Mon-El. The Daximite seemed completely unaware of how unpopular his statement was.   
  
“What did you just say?” Winn seemed to beat everyone else to it with his outrage at the thought.   
  
“I’m just saying, look at Jeremiah. He turned on everyone, who is to say that Alex hasn’t changed sides too?” Mon-El asked looking to Kara for back up. He recoiled when he saw that Kara’s gaze burned hottest.   
  
“It’s Alex.”   
  
“I’m just saying, if Jeremiah can be swayed who’s to say that Alex can’t either. Who knows what they’ve put her through, what they’ve done to her. If we go in there, even if we bring her back, she might not be Alex anymore.”   
  
Maggie had never gotten so much satisfaction from punching someone as she did when her first collided with Mon-El’s nose. While she was sure that she wouldn’t break his nose, or even cause him any sort of lingering damage. To see him stumble backwards and full on his ass was satisfaction enough.  
  
“Get out. Go back to your home planet, go back to whatever hole you call a home I don’t care. But I swear to God if you are not out of my sight in ten seconds I will put a bullet in your head.” Maggie was vaguely aware of someone holding her back, she wasn’t entirely sure who it was but when she looked back on the encounter she was grateful that they did because she probably would have continued hitting Mon-El.   
  
“Kara-“  
  
“No, Mon-El. Maggie’s right. You need to leave.” Kara’s voice was close to Maggie’s ear which meant that Kara was the one that was holding her back.   
  
No one paid much attention to him as he left, everyone else was dealing with what it was he said and the possibility that none of them wanted to face that he might be right. They might find a way to bring Alex back, and when they do they might find that Alex wasn’t the same anymore. None of them had wanted to allow the thought to cross their minds because they had been so focused on simply getting her back alive. Anything else they would deal with as they came to it. But for Mon-El to bring it up, to actually voice the fear to the whole group forced them to think about it.  
  
“We can’t focus on that right now, we need to bring our girl home.” J’onn said. It wasn’t the rallying speech that any one was needing but it would do.   
  
*~*  
  
Alex’s arms felt like they were tied down with lead weights, she had swung them so many times that her muscles screamed for even a moments rest. Her knuckles were bruised and bloodied but that was nothing compared to her victim. He was still alive, she was grateful for that at least. Thankfully, whatever species they had picked for her had a hard exoskeleton that seemed to be protecting him pretty well. Feeling the sharp, electrical shock shoot through her back Alex turned.   
  
“Keep going.” Hank Henshaw said with a cold cruelty.  
  
“I can’t even lift my arms let alone actually hurt him.” Alex insisted. She could practically feel his gaze as he looked over her, trying to see if what she said was true. When he saw the heaviness with which her arms hung he was sure that she was telling him the truth. He had stood behind her and watched as she punched the confined alien. Every time he even remotely suspected that she was pulling her punches he would shock her. If she still refused to do as they wanted he would resort to harsher methods.   
  
“You can take a break then.” It wasn’t the response that she was expecting. She figured that he would try and force her to continue their torture of the poor alien. Alex didn’t dare look at him, she knew that if she did and saw the pain and helplessness in his eyes she would feel even worse about herself than she already did.  
  
So she accepted the bottle of water that was offered to her and she went to the corner of the room and sat down. Everything ached, she’d been at this for countless hours. It didn’t even seem like training at this point.   
  
“You know when I ran the DEO our duty was to protect people from the alien threat. Not prioritize their safety and comfort over humans.” Hank started. His admission surprised Alex. They had been at this for weeks and Hank had never spoken more than to bark orders at her.   
  
“We protect everyone against aliens that mean to do harm. Human and alien, they all deserve to be protected.”  
  
“See, you have spent so long with them that you don’t even hear how naive that sounds.”  
  
Alex drained the rest of her water and heaved herself back up onto her feet. She would rather beat herself into a broken fist than listen to anymore of this. But before she could cross the length of the training arena she heard the alarm. It was the same sound that they had played when she had been in the room. Her reaction was visceral. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t do anything but stand frozen.   
  
She didn’t even feel Hank grabbing her by the arms hand force her into movement. She didn’t know where he was taking her but for all she knew she was going to be sent back to the room and never let out.   
  
It wasn’t until a loud explosion shook the entire building that broke her out of her stupor. They were under attack. There were shouts and there were screams as it seemed like all Hell was reigning down on them. Alex supposed there was a time that she would have welcomed it. There was a part of her brain that screamed at her to seize the opportunity that was being presented to her. In the chaos it would be easier for her to escape and find whoever was attacking. If she was lucky then it was Kara and the DEO, but even if it wasn’t then she would still be able to get out of this. But she found she couldn’t move.   
  
*~*  
  
There were op’s where going into it there was just a sense that everything was going to go right. That everything was going to go just like they had planned. This wasn’t one of them. Maggie checked the straps of her vest for what felt like the hundredth time, made sure that her gun was loaded, that Alex’s gun was strapped to her thigh holster, that she had back up rounds and still she felt queasy. She knew that it was because everything was riding on this. Because this was the night that she was going to either get Alex back, or she might lose her forever. And Maggie was going to die before she let it be the latter.   
  
“All units breach on my count.” Maggie heard Lucy’s voice through her ear piece and she waited. Above her she saw Kara circling, she was supposed to stay behind until they could verify if there was kryptonite on site before joining them.   
  
“3…2…1 BREACH!”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> As always, let me know what you think.


End file.
